


Second Chances

by ButterflyGhost



Category: due South
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Break Up, F/M, M/M, Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:11:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4691645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterflyGhost/pseuds/ButterflyGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser and Victoria talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chances

She’s still beautiful. That doesn’t surprise him. What surprises him is that she’s aged into her beauty well. Her hair is cropped into boyish curls, threads of grey now in the black. She seems to have had some plastic surgery along the way – clearly at one time she had money. Despite that, her aristocratic features and tragic eyes still have the power to tug at his heart.

 

He walks toward the booth, sits, and lifts the phone from its cradle.

 

“Hello, Victoria.”

 

“Ben.”

 

Her voice is beautiful too. That voice is pinned in his memory – she ruined Hopkins for him forever, but still the poem rises up. Before he can stop himself he says: 

 

“’I caught this morning morning’s minion...’”

 

Strange, now he thinks of it, that the verb is ‘caught’ rather than ‘saw.’ She did capture him after all.

 

She misunderstands and smiles. Her eyes are soft – whether she means it or not – as she continues with him: 

 

“’king-  
      dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding  
      Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding  
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing  
In his ecstasy!’”

 

They stop. Ben is having trouble breathing. His face is flushed and he is hard. He knows she knows it.

 

“Ben,” she puts her hand on the glass. She always had the power to play him. “You were coming with me, I know it. It’s not too late for us to....”

  
It is astonishing to him how she can kill him every time. He places his hand up against hers, covering her more slender palm and fingers. He thinks of a larger hand; slender fingered, longer fingered, and is glad that he is not here watching this. Because if he were, he would feel himself betrayed.

  
“You remember when we hoped for a second chance?” Ben says, half remembering a conversation with his father.

  
“Yes,” she replies. “I know. This is all such a mess, Ben. This is our third chance, I know that. Third strike and we’re out. But –”

 

“Victoria,” he says, as gently as he can, and removes his hand from the glass. “It’s too late.” 

 

Just in time he stops himselffrom saying ‘I’m sorry.’ He knows that he is weak. She doesn’t deserve an apology. What she did to him, he deserved. What she did to Ray was unforgivable.

 

“Ben,” her voice rises, alarmed. He stands; she stands too, stares through the glass as though she could shatter it. “Ben,” she shouts into the phone, “don’t you leave.”

 

He hangs up and turns his back. Tonight Ray will fuck it out of him, the only one who can.

 

As he walks to the door he just about hears Victoria banging on the glass – the soundproofing is good, but not perfect. His heart feels as though there is a hook in it, tugging him back toward her. 

 

Damn his heart. It’s always been a fool where she’s concerned. He’s going home to Ray.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> For the Twenty-first Older Not Dead promptathon. Love for the over forties. Anyone who wants to play, the link is here.
> 
> http://older-not-dead.livejournal.com/


End file.
